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Goredho

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Goredho

  1. Yeah, the look and bridge HB seem like an attempt to make a “modern” Tele for the 80’s, but it would have been about 7 years late in 1992. I have not played it yet and might not. It’s about 40 mins away and Im not really interested. It would be to just have played a somewhat rare guitar.
  2. Sorta interesting (and seemingly rare?) 1992 Telecaster plus in “Firestorm Red” finish showed up for sale nearby. Anyone know anything about these? I’m not interested, but may go give it a play just to have played it.
  3. For only $2500, you can own Steve Buschemi.
  4. Yeah, I know and I know I can find different evidence-based works that talk about Russia with regards to individual events like Brexit, 2016 election, etc… I was wanting something that ties all that together in a single resource.
  5. Thanks, but I'm looking for a non-fiction work centered on events of the last decade, like some sort of deep investigative reporting with conclusions supported by real evidence. I can find all sorts of theories about whats going on, but that's not what I'm looking for. Edit: What I really want is the Errol Morris documentary or Malcolm Gladwell book about the rise of fascism globally in the first quarter of the 21st century. Not something focused solely on Brexit, or the 2016 election, or whatever. Something that looks across all of this for the ties that bind.
  6. I think you are correct, but I also think there are still non-polarized voters in the middle and that they are fucking tired of the bullshit and brinksmanship. At this moment in GA at least, there were enough of them able to identify the candidate who would most further contribute to it.
  7. When I've got some driving to do, this is worth the time.
  8. Since we are seeing all these far right movements in various countries around the world all getting motivated to act at roughly the same time, has there been any serious (evidence based vs conspiracy theory) exploration as to why?
  9. Last post from me today, I have work to do. Donald Trump has enemies in the Republican party. The prevailing attitude here is "Fuck em. They're Nazis, or Nazi enablers. They must be destroyed with the rest of the Republican Party!" I think that is stupid. They should be worked with, supported and emboldened. Here's a choose your own adventure explanation of why using our beloved Nazi Germany pre-WWII analogy, which I am sure no one gives a shit about. Page 1 It is at the point in the timeline after the Beer Hall Putsch and before Hitler was made Chancellor with supreme power. Somewhere in the mid 1930s. You are a powerful German citizen, a member of the opposition party, and you are approached by a small number of of Nazi party members with the desire for help in conspiring against Hitler to bring about his downfall. They want to work discretely but directly with you and receive your assistance to take down Hitler and install instead Erich Von Boogerstein as head of the Nazi party. You have a vision of the future, and you know what Hitler will bring. You know that if Hitler gets complete control of the German government, 15-20 million people in Europe will die, including 4 million of your countrymen. You know the Holocaust will happen, and that 6 million jews will be exterminated in genocide. You know your country will be subjugated and divided and not recover for 50 years. You don't like Von Boogerstein, he is just as repulsive in his beliefs as Hitler. He would likely do the exact same things -- if he could. But Hitler is unusual. He's crude, but with a unique and singular hold over a critical mass of the population, and you know exactly who he is and what he will do. With Von Boogerstein, there's a chance he may not be able to entrance the populace to the degree required to achieve those aims. With Von Boogerstein, there's a chance to avoid all that death and destruction. What do you do? 1. Do you slap them and yell, "GET THE FUCK OUT, NAZI! YOU ARE ONE OF THEM AND WILL BE DESTROYED ALONG WITH HITLER, VON BOOGERSTEIN AND THE REST OF YOUR PARTY. THE NEXT TIME WE WILL SEE EACH OTHER IS AT ONE OF OUR HANGINGS!" (turn to page 2) 2. Do you try to elevate Hitler in the belief that he is so repulsive, that the populace will favor your party and it will be easier for you to erect your own vision for Germany? Do you risk that even though Hitler might prevail with his popular hold, and if he does, WWII and the holocaust are all but guaranteed to happen? (turn to page 2) 3. Do you vet their overture and make the calculated risk that while the Nazis are bad, Hitler is the worst of them, and it's in my nation's best interests to bring about his downfall before he gets the opportunity to make any challenge impossible? Yes, the Nazi's are still a problem to be dealt with, but without their God-king leading and emboldening them, they very well may be easier to defeat. (turn to page 3) Page 2 The Nazis assume complete control and you are murdered as a political dissident. WWII ignites, the holocaust happens. Your wife and children die in the Dresden fire bombings. Your country is subjugated and divided. The end. Page 3 Hitler has a fall from grace. Von Boogerstein assumes control of the Nazi party. Flip a coin, if heads, turn to page 2. If tails, the end.
  10. I think you are 100% correct here. At least this corner of Surly is more of a support group than discussion forum.
  11. I appreciate your positions, and I know people just as you describe. I know they are part of the problem. I know they may never come back from their own ledge. But I know others... Probably the most stark example of a good person I know who did not vote against Trump in the past two elections is a white Christian male family member. He and his wife adopted two black children from Haiti as infants. Children who have no relationship to their biological families. You may remember back in 2010, there was that massive earthquake in Haiti that devastated the island. This family member personally gave a 6 figure donation to relief groups. He himself went to Haiti in the aftermath, able to communicate only with a satellite phone. He found the birth mothers of his children and helped them rebuild somewhat. He and his wife would return the next three years for a month each year as missionaries in their villages, helping build schools and such. They only stopped after helping migrate these two black female foreigners and the rest of their families to the US and get them established here. They have since helped pay for all of their children to go to college. He and his wife could have simply said a prayer for the people in Haiti and enjoyed their children. Their children had no ties to their biological families in Haiti, no memories. They weren't begging their parents to do something. These people didn't have a connection to these mothers, they had met them only once for about 15 minutes when the adoptions were finalized. But this guy and his wife were in a position to help, had the means to do so, and felt compelled to act. They made a more positive difference in these people's lives than anyone I have witnessed before or since, and they never publicized it. I am closest to the man, he's a cousin, roughly the same age, and we spent a lot of time together growing up. We went to Texas together at the same time. We've been in each other's "inner circle" throughout our lives, often contacting the other for advice and otherwise being there for each other in times of trial. So I know this guy really well. He would describe himself as a Christian and a conservative. He's a registered Republican, and he tunes in primarily to Fox. He thought Hilary was the worst of two options, and voted for Trump. He disliked Trump, but also didn't care for Biden, so he wrote in "God" for President in 2020. He thinks Biden has been a really poor President, and I can't find many faults with his reasons. He sees how the stars are aligning in 2024, and he fears his choice is going to again be Biden, Trump or God, I guess. He is definitely conflicted and is not sure what he will do in that event. As I said, I know him, and I know this is all true. I know all this because even though I can't fathom how he could have voted for Trump in the first place or be conflicted even now, I have not cast him out of my life. No one here can tell me this person is a lier, evil, irredeemable and a net negative to society just because he can be classified as a white Christian conservative male who is still troubled by and unsure of his political options. That is judging and sentencing him as an individual using only the evidence of his race, religion and sex. That is exactly what far right hate groups do, and it is categorically wrong. So I am not going to cut him out of my life. I am not going to bludgeon him with his voting mistakes. I am going to continue to engage with him as a family member, a friend, a confidant, a teacher and a student. I am going to continue to show him that not all progressive non-believers are evil heathens intent on his destruction, just as he shows me that not all white conservative Christian males are evil automatons and irredeemably lost. And I am hopefully going to continue to help him through his own self-reconciliation and decision making in this unprecedented time of great peril so that he can be on the right side of history. Your mileage (and experiences) may vary.
  12. You are right, I post a lot, and probably spend more time in this virtual community than is healthy, lol. I also have at times gotten caught up in the sermons here, echoed them, amplified them, preached a few myself. Many I still agree with, but I have at least made the attempt to always separate the ire I have for Trump and the hate groups he is the champion of from the individuals who might have fallen under his spell and voted for him -- especially those that show signs of rethinking their positions. In short, I have tried to hold myself to the same standards of human decency I would hold conservatives to. To the degree that I failed in that and led others to believe that all conservatives and Republicans are their enemy to be destroyed, I was wrong, and I'm sorry.
  13. Lol, when are you going to start voting from the rooftops, Brisket? Your 1939 eve of Nazification talk is cheap, señor. Oh, wait. I forgot. You just bloviate ad nauseam about our country’s dire straits while bloviating ad nauseam about our country’s dire straits. For all your apocalyptic predictions, stern prose and ALL CAPS toughness, you sure seem content to just observe and comment. And comment. And comment. By your own words, your country is collapsing, the end is nigh, the brown shirts are knocking at your door. THE TIME IS NOW. And yet here you are, posting again. And again. And again. Your time at this time of reckoning isn’t completely wasted, however. You are good for keeping tensions high amongst this audience. You are the Tucker Carlson of the Cloak Room, talking of what should be done about conservatives and Republicans using the exact same horrific language far right hate groups use to describe what should be done about blacks, LGBTQ+ members, immigrants and other groups. Just spit it out. America needs a final solution to its Republican problem. That’s what all your posts are alluding to. You have stared off your ledge into the abyss, and boy has it stared back at you.
  14. You’ve rendered your judgments from behind your screens of people you know nothing of other than they identify as a conservative and voted for Trump at least once. What could I say or they do that could possibly matter to you? They are your sworn enemy. So be it.
  15. The honest answer is they don’t know. They aren’t faced with that choice yet. They think Trump is awful and needs to never be President again and they think Joe Biden is abysmal and needs to never be President again. If these are their two choices again in 2024, they don’t know what they will do other than be disgusted with their options. I’m sure that won’t be a satisfying answer to this crowd.
  16. Funnily enough, I use them everyday and same pic applies 😜
  17. I don't know what to say other than you are completely wrong. You have a lot more time than me to dedicate to debate and pontification here, so I'll leave it at this. You are pigeon holing a whole lot of people into a single class that you feel must be completely marginalized if not eliminated for the good of society. That makes you guilty of exactly what you would crucify those people for. I know for a fact some of the people that you would catch up in your net are not what you want to believe they are. I have known them, deeply, intimately, for years. I have lived with them, one for decades. I have seen them carry out great acts of selfless kindness for people who are squarely outside of the conservative, white, Christian heterosexual demographic they belong to. And yes, I've seen them fall prey to a cult-like political psyops campaign. These people are not Nazi monsters. They are humans, capable of being duped and capable of making mistakes. Just like you are. Someone else can have my spot on the ledge.
  18. So you are telling me I should trust a random person on the internet (you) when you tell me that people I know closely in reality (not you) are awful, horrible, irredeemable and have no place in American society? People who I know for a fact are generally good, kind people who are guilty only of falling for an unprecedented political scam that has fooled millions? Sorry, that does not align with the reality I have directly observed with my own two eyes. If everyone keeps cheering for blood, they will get it soon enough. Perhaps that of their enemies, Perhaps their own. Or perhaps that of someone they love. 70 million people voted for Trump in the last election. If they all must fight or die to exist in your America, you're no better than what you are railing against.
  19. We'll have to agree to disagree that everyone in the GOP or who voted for them the past couple cycles is irredeemable and must be made to pay for their sins. I know yours is probably the more popular opinion here, but I firmly believe it is the path to becoming exactly what they say you are and further perpetuating the problem. There are plenty of historical examples where forced atonement has had the opposite to desired effect, and I hope there are people with more power than you or I that are seeking to leverage those who have been wrong in the past, but who are willing to work on the right side of history now. I know for a fact there are many conservative voters who desperately want another conservative option than what they had and voted for in 2016 and 2020.
  20. I wonder what it would take nationwide to have something like the effect of the Tet offensive in Vietnam?
  21. I understand the outrage, but for my kid’s sake, I’m most interested in seeing how we can most quickly and pragmatically neutralize the threat that Trump and his movement within the GOP represent. The least efficient and most violent path is through a war to the death with everyone who identified as and voted Republican in 2016 and beyond (the “fuckemall” approach). Trump and his movement have enemies in the Republican party. They have enemies among conservative voters who want to see a return from the brink. If our goal is to make our nation a better one for the next generation as quickly and painlessly as possible, those Republicans and conservative voters should be empowered, promoted and embraced, not bludgeoned with outrage. We should do that for no other reason than it increases the barriers that Trump and his movement must overcome to cement their ideology as the law of the land. I don’t give a fuck if a Republican voted to not impeach Trump two years ago. If they are willing to help bury his ass today, they are an ally. I don’t care if a conservative voter pulled the lever for Trump in 2020. If they are willing to primary his ass in favor of another conservative who does not as successfully operate his hate engine, that voter is an ally.
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